Is the world a happier place now than 20 years ago?

[Tottrop]

I feel it is not.

People spend too much time at screens. Well at least the opticians grow rich.

 

[dargelos]

I (and my better half) are happier than twenty years ago. But you may be right, for the younger generation, there are many reasons not to be cheerful. I'm glad I never had children, I'd be ashamed at the world I was leaving for them. Staring at their phones all day is the least of their problems.

 

[brmstn69]

Let's see...

Clinton was president

The U.S. was enjoying it's largest economic growth in history

Columbine was considered a once in a lifetime occurrence and mass shootings at schools were not a weekly event

Gas was $1.22 a gallon

"Reality TV" didn't dominate the networks

The only TV you had to pay for was cable or satellite, no Amazon Prime, Netflicks, or Hulu

$5 cups of coffee were practically unheard of

9/11 hadn't happened yet

You could board a plane without a body cavity search

Only assholes had cell phones

The music still sucked, but we were all partying like it was 1999, because it was...

So, fuck yeah! We were happier 20 years ago...

 

[tonka]

Gay people have right today that were just a dream twenty years ago, and hiv is no longer a deadly curse.
I sometimes worry about the future, but I don't sugarcoat the past.

 

[Whtrbbit]

I- don't think the world is a happy place as compared to 20 years ago. There are aspects of life that are better now for sure, but I think overall people's happiness has declined.

 

[Shelter]

20 years ago I was 11 and I've had a happy childhood together with my siblings and my loving parents. I don't know how it was for a gay 20 years ago. But I think it will be better today - although always again and again gays or lesbians are attacked openly - and that not because they are openly kissing or fucking - but only because they are walking hand in hand. And mostly these attacks will be started by muslim emigrants.
That is "OUR" problem today.

 

[trencherman]

The easy availability of porn makes up a big part of our happiness. Seen through that filter alone, the world has indeed become happier these last twenty years.

 

[dargelos]

The easy availability of porn makes up a big part of our happiness. Seen through that filter alone, the world has indeed become happier these last twenty years.

There were plenty of porn mags, good ones too, twenty years ago but you are talking about free online video, which has now put most of those mags out of business. That's progress.
Another thing that has been almost snuffed out is cottaging, though we would need to go back longer than twenty years to see it in it's prime. For non Brits the cottage was a public toilet which, if you knew the specific times and places, you could go to with the absolute certainty of scoring instant sex. Now there is grindr of course, but for that you need to have a tempting photograph if you want to pick up decent trade.
The cottage was more egalitarian, in the dark there was place for any man, no matter how unfashionable he looked, which I don't think is very true today.
All those toilets have been closed down now, what is worse is that there is nowhere to go for a piss anymore which I think is definately not progress.

 

[Shelter]

There were plenty of porn mags, good ones too, twenty years ago but you are talking about free online video, which has now put most of those mags out of business. That's progress.
Another thing that has been almost snuffed out is cottaging, though we would need to go back longer than twenty years to see it in it's prime. For non Brits the cottage was a public toilet which, if you knew the specific times and places, you could go to with the absolute certainty of scoring instant sex. Now there is grindr of course, but for that you need to have a tempting photograph if you want to pick up decent trade.
The cottage was more egalitarian, in the dark there was place for any man, no matter how unfashionable he looked, which I don't think is very true today.
All those toilets have been closed down now, what is worse is that there is nowhere to go for a piss anymore which I think is definately not progress.

Wow honestly it is always sooo very interesting for me to hear what "elder" gay guys can tell about the years when "openly gay" was strictly forbidden. How they met friends or simply a fuck buddy for the moment.
Hey Gorgik9 wouldn't that be a special thread for you too? :thumbs up:

 

[Tottrop]

Wow honestly it is always sooo very interesting for me to hear what "elder" gay guys can tell about the years when "openly gay" was strictly forbidden. How they met friends or simply a fuck buddy for the moment.
Hey Gorgik9 wouldn't that be a special thread for you too? :thumbs up:

Perhaps the elder generation would share stories of their youth. Was it really such a horror show? If so, surely there are many stories to relate.

 

[Rheinwein2]

I think, there hast changed much...but if I had to choose, I'd say, that the world was 20 years ago happier than today

 

[joelr]

This is a really interesting question, so thanks to the OP for asking!

1. I do believe there's been a decay of community-oriented social groups, like churches, youth groups, and civic participation. It's been replaced by online / digital.
2. The standards of living have definitely increased, so things are more convenient / cheaper / faster, but are we actually happier?
3. We also have more choices than ever before - if you want buy a new couch, there ar literally thousands of choices at your fingertips. But there's a "paradox of choice" where more choices actually make us more miserable, since we become overwhelmed and stressed at the complexity of even relatively minor choices.

 

[Shelter]

I will ask you a converse question: Have the people been 50 years ago happier than we are today? I came to this question after reading the post of JOELR. 50 years ago they haven't had computers and from this reason no social medias, no cell phones. There was a "normal" telephone, children could play outside and so on, and so on! Has it been a better time?

 

[Mardo]

I will ask you a converse question: Have the people been 50 years ago happier than we are today? I came to this question after reading the post of JOELR. 50 years ago they haven't had computers and from this reason no social medias, no cell phones. There was a "normal" telephone, children could play outside and so on, and so on! Has it been a better time?

I'd say 50 years ago times were a little happier than today. But there were negatives. Quite limited entertainment options. Quite a few still had small B&W TV's. Fewer houses had central heating.

Maybe 20 years ago was a sweet-spot. Enough comfort and convenience and at the same time the social fabric had not eroded quite so much.

Still, there is a nagging doubt that maybe we look at the far off past through rose tinted shades.

50 years ago. 20 years ago. What does it matter. The bigger comparison is with a few centuries back. By comparison to that we are all spoiled little princesses.:-* Pouting for more. And yet we are forever seeing the negatives in the past. What about the positives. Think of all the wonderful poetry and literature written centuries ago. It puts the drivel of today to shame. Why is that?

 

[Passive]

Worse

 

[gorgik9]

Worse

Hrrrrmmm...what makes you (or anyone else) think that "the world" ever has been "a happy place"?

Doesn't it depend totally on who you are, where you are, what you are and why you are???

While living in the times of Covid-19 might seem the worst shit ever, but was it better when the Spanish Flue unceremoniously killed somewhere in between 50-100 million people from spring 1918 until summer 1920, following WWI 1914-1918 having killed more than 9 millions in the war...

Or what about the murderous sequences of bubonic plague, starting in the mid 14th century and not doing its last killing spree until the 18th century?

But of course happy humans existed even in the time of the Black Death, and if you don't believe me I'd suggest that you read Giovanni Boccaccio's Decamerone, a book written during the Black Death in Florence, about young people living there.

 

[jrr22]

Definitely worse. The climate was starting display its destruction visibly, but still was not taken seriously, just like now. The music still sucked. Country music was not country rock. There were, unlike now, real programs on TV that were worth watching. There were, again unlike now, fewer assholes, both domestic and foreign to contend with.

And you ask if were happier now? What would be your first guess?

 

[Tomsawyer]

I think it's a lot worse than it used to be nobody knows how to communicate with each other anymore.

 

[lukas.11]

I think it should be, generally.

Many of the bad phenomena you are complaining about (or not) are choices - individual or collective (as a societies or nations).

But there is a technological progress and new knowledge which tends to make things better in the long run. e.g. environmental protection is far better, which will have lasting effect (I hope).

The magic trick is that knowledge and technological progress ted to have positive feedback loop and choices tend to have feedback loop in both ways (depending on outcome).